[wizardwatson: this is the meaning behind "breaking the glass" at a jewish wedding when people say "Mazel Tov!". There's disagreement surrounding the origin but I believe the below account because the word origin is from Mishnaic Hebrew "mazzal", meaning "constellation" or "destiny" which reinforces the soul mate concept]
http://www.chabad.org/library/articl...-a-Wedding.htm
Question:
I understand that the reason I will be breaking a glass with my foot at the end of the wedding ceremony is to commemorate the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago. This was indeed a significant event in Jewish history, but it doesn't seem to have any relevance to me. What does a destroyed building have to do with my wedding?
Answer:
The destruction of the Holy Temple has extreme personal relevance. It happened to you. It is true that shattering the glass primarily commemorates the fall of Jerusalem; however, it is also a reminder of another cataclysmic shattering that of your very own temple, your soul.
Before you were born, you and your soulmate were one, a single soul.
Then, as your time to enter this world approached, G-d shattered that single soul into two parts, one male and one female. These two half-souls were then born into the world with a mission to try to find each other and reunite.
At the time, the split seemed tragic and incomprehensible. Why create fragmentation where there was once completion? Why break something just so it could be fixed? And if you were meant to be together, why didn't G-d leave you together?
It is under the chupah, the wedding canopy, that these questions can be answered. With marriage, two halves are reuniting, never to part again. Not only that, but you can look back at the painful experience of being separated and actually celebrate it. For now it is clear that the separation brought you closer than you would otherwise have been.
Ironically, it was only by being torn apart and living lives away from each other that were you able to develop as individuals, to mature and grow. Your coming together is something you had to achieve and choose, and therefore it is appreciated deeply. With the joyous reunion at the wedding it becomes clear that your soul was only split in order to reunite and become one on a higher and deeper level.
And so you break a glass under the chupah and immediately say congratulatory wish of Mazel Tov! Because now, in retrospect, even the splitting of souls is reason to be joyous, for it gave your connection the possibility for real depth and meaning.
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